The Parts Nobody Wants to Hold — and Why You Need Someone Who Will Surplus houses exist because the industrial supply chain produces inventory nobody can afford to keep — and everybody eventually needs. Every Shelf Charges Rent Holding inventory in any industry costs 20–30% of its value, annualized. Capital, storage, insurance, shrinkage, labor — the meter runs whether … [Read more...] about The Parts Nobody Wants to Hold
Why Routine Decisions Keep Finding the President
President's Need to Operationalize Trust You built a good company. That is not the problem. The problem is what a good company does to the person who runs it. Somewhere between your first few million and your current size, you stopped doing everything yourself and built a real organization. You hired people better at sales than you. You built a purchasing function that … [Read more...] about Why Routine Decisions Keep Finding the President
Fastener Distributor Growth and Exit Opportunities
Are you a fastener distributor, or a distributor with fasteners as a significant percentage of your business and Why private equity may be interested Every distributor knows that private equity has been investing into the industrial space and into distributors. PE firms have funds to invest in companies, and people, that aspire to lead platforms and/or are seeking to … [Read more...] about Fastener Distributor Growth and Exit Opportunities
2026 Q2 Pulse of Industrial Supply … Organically Flat , Pricing Drives Revenue
Each quarter, Industrial Supply Trends, in conjunction with William Blair, conducts a quarterly Pulse of Industrial Supply survey. We gain input from a wide array of distributors and manufacturers so that we can correlate performance and then share with you the results. Survey respondents received a copy of the results in early July. Industrial Supply Channel … a … [Read more...] about 2026 Q2 Pulse of Industrial Supply … Organically Flat , Pricing Drives Revenue
How Agentic AI Could Change How Industrial Supplies Are Bought
Amidst the conversation about AI, data centers and the industrial construction market, all of which distributors benefit from, there is another conversation that, as typical, starts on the consumer side and then migrates to B2B. This is how AI is / may change business models … and when Inevitably it does not occur as quickly as the Big 4 consulting pundits project … [Read more...] about How Agentic AI Could Change How Industrial Supplies Are Bought
The New ISA Board: What It Tells Us About the Industrial Channel
ISA recently announced their 2026 / 2027 Board of Directors to represent the membership and guide the leadership on the member's needs. Further, with ISA having a small staff (by design), the Board of Directors also is the thought-leadership and idea generation segment of the association ... it's a think tank. So, I decided to use AI for two of the things it is best at - … [Read more...] about The New ISA Board: What It Tells Us About the Industrial Channel
The Death of “Trust Me” Selling
How One Distributor Turned a Top Performer's Instinct into a Methodology Their Whole Sales Team Could Use Recently I was talking to Susan Merlo from The Digital Distributor, and we were discussing the industrial distribution market and distributor challenges. One of the topics was how distributors need to adjust their sales techniques in order to differentiate themselves to … [Read more...] about The Death of “Trust Me” Selling
NetPlus Members See Positive 2nd Half
NetPlus shared insights from its member survey and their performance" "A strong start to the year for NetPlus Alliance members is also signaling a strong 2026. Distributors shared their optimism grounded in sound strategies and industry observations. The Industry Outlook, a quarterly report based on a survey of NetPlus members, tracks business results and trends in the … [Read more...] about NetPlus Members See Positive 2nd Half
Are You a Market Maker or a Market Server?
With this article we're introducing a new contributor - Frank Hurtte from River Heights Consulting. Frank is known for his industrial sales expertise and has written two books on industrial sales - The Distributor Specialist: Customer Champion, Profit Generator and The New Sales Guy Project. Frank and I talk regularly, and we've collaborated on some projects together. Now … [Read more...] about Are You a Market Maker or a Market Server?
“Be Like Mike?” Perhaps Data Like Grainger
Grainger probably has more eCommerce experience than any distributor. I remember back when they acquired a stake in MRO.com to form FindMRO.com. People thought they were crazy. In reality, it was probably a great experience from a learning perspective. They've built an eCommerce machine that also enables them to power Grainger.com and Zoro.com but also is the backbone of the … [Read more...] about “Be Like Mike?” Perhaps Data Like Grainger
